5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to think about the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges being a beneficial and practical alternate for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was speaking for the duration of an oversight visit to your post-school education and teaching (PSET) establishments while in the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as crucial for job creation and youth skills development inside the country.
The Deputy Minister visited the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and the Cape Peninsula {University of Engineering (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits aimed at examining the state of readiness of larger education institutions across the nation, ahead on the 2025 educational year.
In the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to just take pleasure in acquiring artisan skills as they offer excellent entrepreneurship alternatives.
"I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing at TVET colleges, I believe they are the future of this country. TVETs are producing artisans with much needed skills [and] also offer opportunities for learners to acquire future skills, such as robotics, AI [Artificial intelligence], and coding," Gondwe said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed considerations about student residences and also other amenities. The Deputy Minister directed the read more establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the determined read more problems.
The Deputy Minister’s visit to the Western Cape, follows her recent visit to higher education institutions in the Free State where she visited Goldfields TVET College and the Central University of Technology (CUT), at the Welkom campus.
Through the visits, the Deputy Minister is accompanied by essential senior officials from Higher Education and Training, and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The Deputy Minister’s dedicated Help Desk has also formed part of the delegation, assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The issue of funding and administrative challenges confronted via the NSFAS was from the spotlight through the Free State leg of the visits.
"NSFAS needs to get its act together, in order to ensure that student allowances are paid on time with no delays. Delays cause serious letaba tvet collegecheck here challenges for learners; learners need allowances to eat and to buy hygiene products. This is important for their sense of wellbeing and dignity," Gondwe said.
Gondwe embarked on the state of readiness visits following a plan of action, announced by Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane at the special meeting of the Post Education and Training sector held in January 2025, to establish the state of readiness for the 2025 academic year.
The Deputy Minister's oversight is expected tvet colleges open to continue in other provinces, with North West higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za